One more. It's not a part of Canada, but I think it still can be considered an island of Canada.
It's the French islands of St-Pierre-et-Miquelon, located just off the south coast of Newfoundland.
You can see the islands in this image from space. They are directly off the south coast of Newfoundland, in the bottom-centre of the photo. It looks like the "boot" of the Burin Peninsula just kicked them, which has unusually strong and accurate historical implications.
Newfoundland clear by
SpaceRef, on Flickr
There a few towns on the island but almost the entire population of several thousand lives in the capital, St-Pierre:
St Pierre et Miquelon 2009 by
Gord McKenna, on Flickr
The culture of St-Pierre is very authentically French. They get summers off, they take three-hour lunches, they start every day at the bakery, they have wine with lunch and dinner, they smoke, alcohol costs less than chewing gum, they look about 10-years-younger than people in their age group in Newfoundland.
East to the Arctic Expedition by
mcgill.alumni, on Flickr
Le Pays du France meets Granite Planet? by
ADT image!nation, on Flickr
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The things about St-Pierre that surprised me most on visits:
They use mirrors on the sides of buildings instead of street lights in the VERY dense old town area. So you pull up to the intersection, and check these giant oval mirrors fixed to the sides of buildings on the other corners.
The drinking age was 14 when I was growing up.
That was awesome. And the ferry is only 45 minutes. You can see St-Pierre easily from the coast of Newfoundland, even make out individual buildings.
With all their history, and all of their tragic stories they could share to foster hatred of anglophone Newfoundlanders - what do they choose to promote most for tourists? Their role supplying the States with booze during prohibition. Those types of stories are what anglophone visitors are most likely to end up stumbling into. Even the hotels have preserved the rooms where Al Capone stayed just as it was when he left, etc.
The bakeries... they're EVERYWHERE and you simply will not believe that they can take the same ingredients we use elsewhere in North America and make things that taste SO MUCH better.
The cemetery. The tombs are all above ground, as in New Orleans. And it's beautiful.
The airport. Small towns with massive airports always fascinate me. The disproportionate importance is really cool.